Like that game, it features a dizzying array of new features and technical wizardry applied to its base game.
- DWN-049: Freeze Man, weak to Plasma Strike, gives Silver Bullet.
- DWN-050: Junk Man, weak to King's Slash, gives Scrap Flood.
- DWN-051: Burst Man, weak to Ripple Noise, gives 3-Point Burst.
- DWN-052: Cloud Man, weak to Bikkuracoil, gives Plasma Strike.
- DWN-053: Spring Man, weak to Scrap Flood, gives Bikkuracoil.
- DWN-054: Slash Man, weak to Self-Burning, gives King's Slash.
- DWN-055: Shade Man, weak to Silver Bullet, gives Ripple Noise.
- DWN-056: Turbo Man, weak to 3-Point Burst, gives Self-Burning.
This game provides examples of:
- 11th-Hour Superpower: Exaggerated in a mundane way at the very end. The final battle is a dreadful Bullet Hell with multiple phases, but Mega Man is given 99 lives and infinite healing items to take on Bass.
- Adapted Out:
- The original intro stage is nowhere to be found in this rom hack, but its tileset is used during the End-Game Results Screen. The background music is used in Slash Man's stage, and Mad Grinder is used as Turbo Man's miniboss (with Sisi Truck being moved to Freeze Man's stage).
- The Robot Museum isn't in the game either, but its tileset is used in Wily 5. Mash, the boss for the stage, is the miniboss for Cloud Man's level.
- Advancing Boss of Doom: Wily Stage 3: Pursuer has the HannyaNed^2 boss fight take place throughout the whole level as HannyaNed^2 constantly pursues Mega Man. Even when dead, he still pursues Mega Man.
- All the Worlds Are a Stage: Wily Stage 1: Thorny Paths repeats the gimmicks used in the Robot Master stages in order to get the Nova Adapter.note
- Amusing Injuries: As Slash Man enters the arena in his boss fight, he accidentally lands on the spikes and crash-lands in front of Mega Man. Even in the rematch in the endgame as part of Wily 4, Slash Man accidentally lands on his head as he makes his entrance.
- An Ice Person: Freeze Man and his Silver Bullet attack obtained from beating him.
- Anti-Frustration Features: To make it clear what Eddie's upgrades do, the first time you die to the Post-Final Boss, a cutscene plays of an E-Tank or a 1-Up restoring Mega Man's health to full. This cutscene is instantly skipped on subsequent deaths.
- If the player dies to the Wily Capsule, the game will start you back there instead of forcing you to refight the Wily Machine.
- Ascended Extra:
- Mega Man's supports that aren't Rush play a greater role compared to Mega Man 7.In Wily 5, they fight alongside Mega Man through the Multi-Mook Melee and help open the way forward.
- An example that is Zigzagged between this and Demoted to Extra: Bass has always been fought as a midboss, never as the actual boss of any given stage; here though, he's the post-final boss and among the hardest fights in the game. However, his recurring presence throughout all of Mega Man 7 is removed in favor of that singular appearance at the end.
- Asteroids Monster: VAN Pookin, the mid-boss of Shade Man's stage, splitting into smaller pumpkins as his health depletes.
- Attack Drone: In a homage to Gradius, Shade Man uses Options to attack Mega Man.
- Background Music Override: During the vehicle sections in the game, Turbo Man's original theme plays and overrides the current stage theme.
- The Bad Guy Wins: If you manage to lose the final fight to Bass, Wily and Bass go into detail about how they're both free to terrorize the world, having just defeated Mega Man. However, it doesn't take long for Wily to realize that this victory wasn't all it was cracked up to be, and the game ends on a single screen reading "Rockman 7 Everlasting Punishment", with no epilogue or credits to speak of.
- Battleship Raid: Wily Stage 2: Dreadnought is a shoot-em-up level based on destroying Wily's battleship from the inside. Gamerizer is the boss.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Roll gleefully wants to destroy the lab and rebuild it during the 3-Point Burst weapon skit, causing Mega Man to be frightened of her.
- Boss in Mook Clothing:
- The red Sniper Joes are the equivalent of Minus Infinity's Jumbig the Death Machine. They take a lot of hits and their shield makes things worse. They give you E-Tanks and W-Tanks if you beat them.
- There's a sleeping grey Kintot in Wily Stage 1. If it's provoked, it will be a challenge to overcome. It's an homage to the Anti-Guy from Paper Mario 64.
- Boss Rush: EP forgoes the usual teleporter room and forces Mega Man to fight the eight Robot Masters in sequential order (their DWN numbers) a la ActRaiser. Wily Stage 5 follows it up with a mini-boss rush.
- Bullet Hell: Wily Stage 2 because it's based on the Gradius series. Mega Man can use the King's Slash to shield against the onslaught of bullets.
- Call-Back:
- Sections of Turbo Man's stage pay homage to Ring Man's stage in Minus Infinity. One section has a fire beam that redirects itself multiple times.
- As a call back to Mega Man stealing Joe vehicles in Minus Infinity's Wily Stage 1, Mega Man can hijack Truck Joe's truck in a section of Turbo Man's stage.
- The second Rush Jet segment in Freeze Man's stage pays homage to Toad Man's level in Minus Infinity.
- Proto Man's boss room bears a heavy resemblance to Cockroach Omega's arena from Minus Infinity, with the same platform arrangement as well as being a cave with small waterfalls running through the area.
- In Wily Stage 5, Rush uses the Friender fire beam from the 2019 New Year's hack and the Rush Cannon attack from Minus Infinity when he assists Mega Man. His Limit Break last attack in that section is the Wish Star adapter.
- Camera Abuse: Upon defeat, the Wily Capsule slams into the screen before exploding.
- Cap:
- Your health and weapon energy can be over-filled with bonus health/ammo and now max out at 56 units instead of 28, with extra health and ammo indicated by a pair of arrows beside the respective bars. Having more than 28 units in either bar will cause them to drain slowly over time.
- The cap on Energy and Weapon Energy Tanks are upped from four to seven, and Beat Call's max capacity was increased by the same amount.
- Challenge Run: The "EP" in the game's title can stand for one of three things depending on your performance. If you manage to beat the game with a very minimal number of exhausted lives and Tanks used, Mega Man refers to "EP" as "Expert Player". Otherwise he calls it "Economic Power". If you somehow manage to die to Bass at the end of the game, EP stands for "Everlasting Punishment".
- Cherry Blossoms: Fitting for a Japanese hot spring, cherry blossoms fall in Spring Man's level.
- Degraded Boss:
- The Dust Crusher is initially promoted to the position of midboss in Junk Man's stage, but it becomes a recurring enemy in Wily 2.
- In Wily Stage 5, Mega Man has to fight downgraded versions of the Robot Masters as mooks.
- Disc-One Final Boss: Wily is this. Bass, who hadn't shown up for most of the game, is the actual final boss.
- Dual Boss: The Gutsmen Gs in Wily Stage 1, having a dizzying array of team attacks.
- Earn Your Bad Ending: Getting the "Everlasting Punishment" ending requires you to lose all 99 of your lives (and the E-Tanks they come with) against Bass at the end of the game. Doing this can easily take an hour, if not several.
- End-Game Results Screen: Rockman 7 EP has a ratings screen during the credits just like Minus Infinity to display completion and stage times, along with new screens detailing how many resources (and therefore money) you had to go through during the game, calculating lives spent, E, W, and S tanks used, and times the Beat Rescue Bottomless Pit Rescue Service was used.
- Epic Flail: Like Violen, Spring Man wields one from his head. The Bikkuracoil ability obtained after beating him counts as well, mixed with elements of a mallet.
- Extra-ore-dinary: Junk Man specializes in manipulating junk metals and sending them at Mega Man. His Scrap Flood ability is a metal-elemental version of ground-traveling weapons like Search Snake and Water Wave.
- Fantastic Racism: Beat gets offended when Mega Man mentions that Bikkuracoil has the capability of destroying "annoying enemies that fly in high places" during the Bikkuracoil weapon skit. Mega Man corrects himself and offers Beat a treat.
- Floating in a Bubble: Mega Man floats in a bubble in certain sections of Spring Man's stage.
- Flying Car: The Sisi Truck from the original game's Turbo Man stage appears in Freeze Man's stage as its midboss, converted into an aircraft.
- Free-Fall Fight: Ghost Hannya's second phase as well as all of the Wily Capsule fight take place in free-fall.
- Fun with Acronyms: Only near the end of the game do you find out EP stands for Economic Power. Do well enough and it's changed on the fly to Expert Player. Die to the last boss and it becomes Everlasting Punishment.
- Gameplay Grading: Wily Stage 2 grades the player on their performance (starting at AAA and going down as they take damage) and rewards them bolts after beating Gamerizer.
- Grimy Water: A section of Shade Man's level is filled with toxic water. There's a meter that indicates Mega Man's toxicity. His skin even changes to match the toxicity.
- Going to Give It More Energy: In Phase 2 of the Wily Capsule fight, Dr. Wily uses Weapon Energy capsules as as attack. This would normally be a non-issue, however Wily tosses you a capsule that causes the "extra" weapon energy you collect to only go into your current weapon's energy at a slow pace instead of instantly applying it. The result of letting the extra Weapon Energy build up fully is Mega Man experiencing "overflow" that causes the Weapon Energy bar to shoot through the top of the screen- causing your HP to drop to 0 but not outright killing you.
- Hailfire Peaks:
- Freeze Man's level combines Level in the Clouds and Slippy-Slidey Ice World.
- Cloud Man's level combines Toy Time and Blackout Basement.
- Hot Springs Episode: Spring Man's level takes place in a hot spring owned by Spring Man. Spring Man's intro even has him soaking in the hot spring before Mega Man rudely interrupts him.
- Infinity +1 Sword: The 999-bolt item in Auto's Shop enhances the Nova Adapter's powers by reducing the charge time.
- Interface Screw: Getting shocked in this romhack screws up Mega Man's controls. Cloud Man specializes in this with his electric attacks.
- Leitmotif: The game's various vehicle segments are set to Turbo Man's stage theme.
- Lethal Lava Land: Junk Man's level takes place in a factory filled with molten metal.
- Level in the Clouds: Freeze Man's stage uses Cloud Man's old tileset, so it takes place in the skies.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: The Proto Shield ability earned after the optional boss fight with Proto Man in Slash Man's level.
- Make Some Noise: The Ripple Noise ability. It lets Mega Man fire a powerful laser-like echolocation wave.
- Man on Fire: Mega Man and Turbo Man weaponize this with the Self-Burning ability. It has many utilities: it can light up darkened areas, give Mega Man immunity to fire/lava, and boil water when Mega Man's standing in it, constantly damaging whatever is submerged.
- Multi-Mook Melee: Wily 5 opens with many rooms where the player must fight off waves of regular enemies with support characters helping out.
- Mythology Gag: In typical PureSabe fashion, the game features references to games all over the Mega Man franchise.
- The bubble floor in Burst Man's fight acts like the kind in Venus's stage, though it only makes Mega Man jump high instead of causing him to bounce repeatedly when landing.
- Burst Man himself is based on Infinity Mijinion from Mega Man X6. He even has Infinity Mijinion's intro as well.
- Freeze Man's stage is an homage to Frost Man's stage in Mega Man 8, featuring an easier version of the rocket-board autoscrollers and a few parts with ice block launchers (now using Spring Man's jack-in-the-boxes).
- Sisi Truck has been modified to act like Tengu Man's airship in his stage from Mega Man 8.
- Freeze Man's boss fight is a near-perfect remake of Flash Man from Mega Man 2, complete with similar room layout.
- the Dust Crusher miniboss in Junk Man's stage is based on the snake miniboss from Deathtanz Mantisk's stage from Mega Man Zero 3.
- Cloud Man's stage includes references the train sections from Magic Man's level in Mega Man & Bass and Clown Man's level in Mega Man 8.
- Cloud Man's Plasma Strike functions much like the Flash Bomb from Mega Man 8 and the Plasma Charge Shot from the Mega Man X series.
- The Shirokumachine GTVs in Spring Man's level are based on the Friender minibosses in Wood Man's stage from Mega Man 2.
- The Floating in a Bubble parts of Spring Man's stage control identically to the zero-gravity screens in the third Wily stage in Mega Man 9, with both using weapon recoil to determine how fast you move horizontally.
- Spring Man's fight is based on Violen from Mega Man X2, complete with flail attack, and he uses a very similar arena to Magma Man from Mega Man 9.
- Slash Man's boss arena comes from Burner Man's arena from Mega Man & Bass. Slash Man can even get injured on the spikes (which he demonstrates in his boss intro).
- Turbo Man's level has sections lifted from Quick Man's stage from Mega Man 2 and Armored Armadillo's stage from Mega Man X.
- Trio the Wheel (the tire-stack enemy from Turbo Man's stage) is much taller, and shooting its tires fires them forward so they can be used as platforms to reach its head. This makes it a mook version of Big Pets, the first Wily Fortress boss in Mega Man 5.
- One of Proto Man's gimmicks is that he uses the charged shots from the Mega Man X series.
- The Nova Adaptor is based on the Nova Strike from the Mega Man X series.
- Just like Wily's alien form at the end of Mega Man 2, the ghost of HannyaNed^2 is really a hologram.
- Rush's attacks in Wily 5 include lunges and projectile spreads mimicking the behavior of Velguader, Sigma's wolf from Mega Man X.
- Wily Stage 5 homages the moon stage from Mega Man X8 by having downgraded versions of the Robot Masters as mooks.
- One of Bass' attacks is a rapid-fire stream of bullets, aimed horizontally and at 45 degree angles, similar to his capabilities in Mega Man & Bass and Mega Man 10.
- Neat Freak: Roll has a freak-out during the Scrap Flood weapon explanation because the attack floods the area with junk that Roll must clean up.
- Post-Final Boss: Bass. Because Proto Man and Eddie stock you up on equipment that greatly stack the odds in your favor, the real final challenge is the Wily Machine and Wily Capsule in the stage prior.
- The Power of Friendship: In the "Expert Player" ending, when Bass asks Mega Man how he managed to win the fight so easily, Mega Man cites his friends (Rush, Beat, Eddie, etc.) helping him out whenever possible.
- Pun:
- Freeze Man freezes time.
- Spring Man's level, Viva!! Spring World, takes place in a hot spring at springtime.
- Remixed Level: Puresabe remixes a few robot master levels to keep it fresh.
- Spring Man's level uses Freeze Man's tileset, but changes it so it is now a Japanese hot spring in springtime.
- Freeze Man's level uses Cloud Man's tileset, but changes it so a blizzard happens during the second half. This level is an homage to Frost Man's level.
- Cloud Man's level uses Spring Man's tileset, but changes it into a Kirby homage.
- Rise to the Challenge: The molten metal and grimy water from Junk Man's and Shade Man's stages respectively eventually start rising. There's also a long section in Wily 3 where HannyaNED^2 chases you upward.
- "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: The HannyaNed^2 ghost boss fight is all smoke and mirrors.
- Shock and Awe: Cloud Man specializes in this. The Plasma Strike ability obtained after beating him lets Mega Man fire a Flash Bomb-like projectile.
- Shout-Out: Many.
- Spotaros are essentially Koopa Troopas from the Super Mario Bros. franchise in that they are turtles that hide in their shells when damaged and then start sliding when touched, damaging both enemies and you while bouncing off walls. You can even get a 1-up if the Spotaro destroys enough enemies.
- Cloud Man's stage references Butter Building from Kirby's Adventure, complete with enemies that brighten the screen completelynote and sections that are shrouded in darkness. It even has a yellow cloud standing in for Kirby's Warp Star.
- In Slash Man's stage, Mega Man can receive a cursed shield from Proto Man, which is a nod to the cursed shield from Final Fantasy VI. If you use it long enough, the curse breaks.
- Cloud Man uses McGuinness's rain attack from Go for it! Goemon 2: The Strange General McGuinness. He also acts like Kracko from Kirby's Adventure.
- The fight against Mash in Cloud Man's stage references Blind the Thief from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, losing heads as he takes damage and having them shoot projectiles at you from afar.
- Shade Man's level is a homage to the Castlevania series, complete with destructible candles that drop items, climbable staircases, and swinging pendulums. Specifically a close adaptation of various areas from the first NES game, though its Clock Tower area has unique level design and Shade Man is fought underwater outside the castle instead of in a typical throne room.
- Shade Man's weapon, the Ripple Noise, is a named reference to the Ripple from the Gradius franchise. The battle against Shade Man even has him use Options from Gradius that follow his movements and use Ripple Noise alongside him. After the battle, Auto attempts to name-drop Gradius while Mega Man describes the weapon's functions, but the name is partially covered by asterisks.
- Turbo Man's boss fight is based on Kamen Rider from Rockman CX and Jet Man from Mega Man Unlimited: his arena is flat with no walls, and he takes advantage of this by trying to ram into you from offscreen.
- Self-Burning is based on the same fire spell from the Romancing SaGa series.
- A section of Spring Man's stage references the bramble stages from Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, with Beat standing in for Squawks and yellow/red Derusu Bees being Zingers. Another section references Rocket Rush from Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!.
- The Bikkura Coil behaves very similarly to the jack-in-the-box attack of the Magic ability from Kirby: Squeak Squad.
- The fight against Slash Man is an homage to fighting Vega (Claw) in Street Fighter II, utilizing diving slashes, grabs, and lots of audible hooting. The camera during this fight even adjusts so that the both of you are always onscreen, just like a 2D fighting game.
- The King's Slash is an homage to Pokémon as it's a slashing ability that has a chance to pull off a critical hit.
- The text for getting an enhancement for a support character (Rush/Beat/Eddie) reads "What?! [character] is evolving!", the same text used for evolution in Pokémon.
- There's a sleeping Kintot in Wily Stage 1 that homages Anti-Guy from Paper Mario 64. It's just as strong as the Shy Guy and has the same grey palette.
- The Gutsmen Gs in Wily Stage 1 are based on Twin Woods from Kirby Super Star: a Dual Boss that attacks from both sides while you're in the center.
- Wily 2 has many sections that are lifted directly from the Gradius series, ranging from the final stage from Gradius I, Stage 7 from Gradius II, both Stage 10 as well as the final escape sequence from Gradius III, and a Shielded Core Boss to boot. The fight against Chimerizer has patterns lifted from the Yorogaton Chimera from Gradius IV. Chimerizer also bears a resemblance to Trinexx from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past in this form.
- In a section, Wily 3 has rideable blue Kintots that jump on water, referencing the dolphins in Vanilla Secret 2 from Super Mario World.
- HannyaNED^2 can call upon the Delta Attack/Delta Force from the Final Fantasy series and Chrono Trigger.
- The final battle against HannyaNED^2 in Wily 3 is a direct reference to the battle against Phantoon in Super Metroid, wielding the same teleportation moves and blue fireball patterns.
- The Boss Rush in Wily 4 is lifted from Death Heim, the final stage from ActRaiser, complete with the Robot Masters being represented by statues that get destroyed as they are killed.
- The Ring Menu that stands in for the fullscreen menu while fighting the Wily Capsule has a similar layout to the item menu from Secret of Mana.
- Beat can use the Falcon Hit ability from Chrono Trigger.
- Like Rockman 4 Minus Infinity, Rockman 7 EP counts the combined amount of times the unit (or in this case, boss), won and lost a fight a la Fire Emblem.
- Silver Bullet: Freeze Man's special ability, the Silver Bullet, kills the paranormal robots with ease. It's Shade Man's weakness because he's a vampire.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: The final phase of the Wily Capsule uses Turbo Man's theme, which makes the fight humorous in a sense that you have this upbeat stage music for the Wily Capsule going all out on the player.
- Spread Shot:
- The 3-Point Burst lets Mega Man fires three Danger Wraps at once.
- Silver Bullet lets Mega Man fire ice bullets in six directions. Ammo is a huge concern for this attack as it only has eight uses total.
- Status Effects: This game has three status effects.
- Fire: Burns Mega Man in place, dealing extra damage over time while he's stunned.
- Ice: Freezes Mega Man solid.
- Shock: Reverses Mega Man's controls.
- Suspicious Video-Game Generosity: The game starts you off with maximum E/W-tanks, and replenishing them is very easy. You will need them. Gets taken to ridiculous extents in Wily Stage 5. Just before the final boss fight with Bass, you get upgrades that give you 99 lives and maximum auto-refilling E-tanks.
- Teleport Spam: Proto Man abuses teleport spam in his boss battle.
- Throwing Your Shield Always Works: The Proto Shield ability replaces Mega Man's charge shot with a shield throw.
- Throw Down the Bomblet: The 3-Point Burst is an upgraded version of Danger Wrap as it fires three Danger Wraps at the same time.
- Time Stands Still: In a homage to Flash Man, Freeze Man can freeze time.
- Title Drop: The final stage is named "The EP". It stands for "Economic Power", "Expert Player", or "Everlasting Punishment".
- Toy Time: Cloud Man's level is now a toy palace with Spring Man's original tileset.
- Trademark Favorite Food: According to Shade Man's subtitle, his favorite food is Texas Toast.
- Unexpected Shmup Level: Wily 2 is one, much like Cossack 1 from Minus Infinity.
- Vehicular Turnabout: Mega Man can hijack Truck Joe's truck at the end of Turbo Man's stage and cause mass destruction.
- Visual Pun: Spring Man's stage feels weird and unfitting at first since you're fighting him in a mountainy area with cherry blossoms and vast underwater caves... until you get to the end and realize that his stage is a giant hot spring.
- Wolverine Claws: Slash Man and the King's Slash weapon obtained from beating him. In this case, King's Slash lets Mega Man negate bullets and gain critical hits if the right conditions are met. It's also a hit-scan weapon, so it can be rapid-fired.
- Wrestler in All of Us: Slash Man can grab and suplex you.
- You Wanna Get Sued?: Upon receiving the Ripple Noise, Auto mentions G**d**s. Mega Man asks Auto if they want to get in trouble again.
- Zero-Effort Boss: Before the final battle against Bass, Proto Man gives you 99 lives, maximum health and weapon energy, an S-Tank, and a replenishing supply of Energy Tanks and Weapon Tanks whenever you die, while Eddie gives you upgrades that allow automatic use of Energy Tanks upon running out of health and the ability to Respawn on the Spot when out of health and E-Tanks, making the fight borderline impossible to lose.
